VOLUME 17 • NUMBER 4 Branding in China: Global Product Strategy Altematives Ilan Alon, Romie F. Littrell, and Allan K.K. Chan Abstract: This arficle reviews and discusses issues in the translafion of intemafional brand names to Chinese, and provides a framework for intemafional brand managers who want to expand into China. Linguisfic differences between Chinese and English are wide and deep, making translafion of brand names difficult. Cultural context, pronimciafion, written vs. oral language, and the mearüng of characters are just a few examples of such difficulties. We discuss four global product-naming strategic altemafives available to country/brand managers, along with their usage. The four approaches include (1) dual extension, (2) brand meaning extension, (3) brand feeling extension, and (4) dual adaptafion. We also provide examples of brands ufilizing the different approaches. I THE CfflNA BRANDING CHALLENGE Branding in China is a challenge for Westem firms. A well-known (and classic) example of brand naming in China is Coca-Cola. When Coca-Cola first entered the Chinese market in 1928, they had no official representafion of their name in Mandarin Chinese. They needed to find four Chinese characters whose pronunciafions approximated the sound of the brand Ilan Alon is Cornell Professor of Intemational Business and Director of The China Center at Rollins College. His recent books include China Rules (Palgrave 2009) and Chinese Entrepreneurs (Edward Elgar 2009). Rollins College, The China Center, Intemational Business & Crummer Graduate School of Business, 1000 Holt Avenue - 2723 Winter Park, FL 32789, USA, Fax: 1^7-646-1550, Cell: l-t07-913-8842. E-mail:
[email protected] Romie F. Littrell is an associate professor of intemational business at Auckland Urúversity of Technology, N.Z., and worked for infonnation technology marketing companies for 30 years in the USA and intemationally; he has taught at the university level for 11 years. Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, Private Bag 92006, Auckland 11142, New Zealand, Tel. 64-9-921-9999x5805, E-mail: romie.littrell®aut.ac.nz Allan K.K. Chan (Ph.D., University of Strathclyde) is Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean of School of Business at Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong SAR, China. He is also Co-Director of the Chinese Businesses Case Research Centre. His research interests include Chinese brand naming and business ethics. School of Business, Hong Kong Baptist University Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong SAR, China, E-mail:
[email protected] Acknowledgements This manuscript has benefited from the comments provided by Li Wei, Robert Moore, Wenxian Zhang, Xiaoqi Yu, Wermi Xiong